C. V. Raman

The fundamental importance of the subject of molecular diffraction came first to be recognized through the theoretical work of the late Lord Rayleigh on the blue light of the sky, which he showed to be the result of the scattering of sunlight by the gases of the atmosphere.

Indian Physicist

Max von Laue

If diffraction or interference phenomena were to be sought it was therefore necessary, in accordance with the basic principles of wave theory, to select for the test arrangement far smaller decisive dimensions than those employed in corresponding tests with visible light.

German Scientist

Stefan Hell

I got bored with the topic; I felt this was 19th century physics. I was wondering if there was still something profound that could be made with light microscopy. So I saw that the diffraction barrier was the only important problem that had been left over.

Romanian Physicist

I imagined there would be a way to crack the diffraction barrier. But of course I didn't know exactly how it would work, but I had a gut feeling that there must be something, and so I tried to think about it, to be creative.

Louis de Broglie

For X-rays, the phenomenon of diffraction by crystals was a natural consequence of the idea that X-rays are waves analogous to light and differ from it only by having a smaller wavelength.

French Physicist

Dorothy Hodgkin

I first met the subject of X-ray diffraction of crystals in the pages of the book W. H. Bragg wrote for school children in 1925, 'Concerning the Nature of Things.

British Scientist

Used mainly in physics and engineering to describe wave behavior.

Scientific Context

Diffraction can also apply to sound waves bending around obstacles.

Not Just Light

Diffraction creates patterns that can be seen, like rainbows from a CD.

Observable Phenomenon

 diffraction and the results are very positive so far seems to indicate that indeed we have found some pigments and since we know for sure that no other artist has painted on that well before Buzzelli came in about six years later well those pigments are definitely

The secret lives of...

 the same size to us as an orange on the surface of the moon. That makes taking a picture of it extremely difficult. Why is that? Well, it all comes down to a simple equation. Due to a phenomenon called diffraction,

How to take a picture of...

 under a microscope the curator - usually would like to know the mineral composition of the object we use techniques such as x-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy